3 Lagos officials remanded over forgery, theft, impersonation

An Ebute-metta Chief Magistrates Court, Lagos, presided over by Chief Magistrate O. I. Adelaja has ordered the remand of three staff of the Lagos State Ministry of Environment charged before the court on conspiracy, forgery, impersonation and stealing.
Those ordered to be remanded in prison custody by the court were Babatunde Olaogun, 31, Babadola Adigun, 41, and Olanrewaju Jones, 40.
The three accused, according to detectives from the Criminal and Investigation Department of Lagos State Police Command, Panti-Yaba, allegedly committed the offences between November 17 and December 4, 2015, at the Ministry of Environment, Alausa, Lagos.
The prosecutor, Inspector Chinalu Uwadione informed the court that the three accused who claimed to be legal manager, account manager and transport manager of the ministry respectively, conspired together and forged a Local Purchase Order, LPO, which they used in stealing three Toyota Camry cars from an auto firm, Affordable Cars Limited.
The detectives particularly alleged that the first accused, Babatunde Olaogun, the master mind of the fraud, forged an LPO marked MOE 2950/49 dated November 11, 2015, which they acted upon to steal the three Toyota Camry cars.
The chassis numbers of the three cars are LT4BFIFK6FR488931, 4T4BFIFR506879 and 4T4BFIFKFR506904 and valued at N28.5 million.
The offences, the prosecutor informed the court, are contrary to and punishable under sections 409, 363, 378 and 285(10) of the criminal laws of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2011.
The three accused persons pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
Upon the plea of the accused persons, their lawyers who include Imonighara O., Sadik Lateefat and Spurgeon Ataene, orally applied to the court to admit them to bail in the most liberal terms.
Ruling on the bail application, Chief Magistrate Adelaja admitted bail to the second and third accused persons, Adigun Babalola and Jones Olarenwaju in the sum of N100, 000 with one surety each while the first accused person, Babatunde Olaogun was admitted to bail in the sum of N2 million with two sureties.
Adelaja ordered that the sureties must show to court evidence of three years tax payment to Lagos State government, means of livelihood and have their addresses verified by the prosecutor.
Adeleja, however, ordered that the trio be remanded in prison custody pending the perfection of their bail conditions and adjourned till March 2 for mention.